The LLS examines the plan, and if acceptable, give permission for the clearing to take place.

This process is apparently what triggered screams of “red tape” gone mad from farmers, and so Robyn Parker was leaned on to do away with even this miniscule gesture of bringing science to the process.

Thus, if the proposed changes go forward, this will not be required, and effectively a farmer can get out of bed in the morning, decide, over coffee, that a bit of land needs to be blasted out of existence, and then just go to it the moment the bulldozer has warmed up.

Shadow environment minister in NSW, Luke Foley, has this to say on the topic:

The Government's proposed draft codes to govern land clearing are dangerous in two ways. They radically reduce the standards of clearing protections but, perhaps more importantly, they rely on self assessment. This will inevitably lead to greater clearing and expose farmers to unintended illegality.

He added:

The wholesale review of the Act itself is still to come, but I have no doubt it will not suggest environmental improvements to the Act.

Land clearing is probably the greatest threat to biodiversity in NSW, any slackening of the controls is bad news.

Wendy Hawes, so exercised by the possibility of these changes, submitted a twelve page PDF to the department summarising her concerns.

Invasive Native Species

Says Wendy in her submission:

'A major flaw in the self-assessable code is the lack of a defined threshold for when the density of plants listed are considered to be invasive. This appears to be simply in the subjective opinion of the landholder.'

Wendy suggests 10,000 stems per hectare is a useable working threshold.

The illogic here is that, with no lower limit, a few plants could theoretically signal an “invasion”, and the entire hectare(s) around these plants could be cleared.

Thinning Native Species

Wendy says here:

'The 25cm DBHOB as a threshold for thinning is too large. In the Central Wheat Belt and North West Slopes it is likely that allowing the removal of trees greater than 20cm will result in loss of a significant number of hollow bearing trees.'

DBHOB stands for Diameter at Breast Height Over Bark and is a technical definition used by agriculturalists and foresters. Essentially, it means the diameter of the tree trunk at average human chest height, 1.3m off the ground is the common standard. Raising the DBHOB for thinning native species will increase the number of trees that can be culled — many of them, depending on species, already mature.

If this black cypress pine has a diameter less then 25cm, then it can be cleared under proposed changes to the Thinning Native Vegetation regulation (Image rymich.com)

Clearing of Isolated Paddock Trees

And likewise the DBHOB comes in here as well.

The new regs wish to, literally, up the ante to 80cm DBHOB, opening the way to clear any tree less than 80cm girth.

As Wendy says in her submission

First:

The proposed DHBOB is way too high.

Then:

... allowing the clearing of paddock trees up to 80cm DBHOB is likely to remove very large numbers of hollows, detrimentally impacting hollow dependent fauna.

Equally, in many agricultural landscapes these trees are often the only remaining native vegetation, apart from narrow road reserves.

They have important role as a seed resource, they provide food resources, resting, nesting and roosting sites for species able to access them and maintain landscape connectivity in the agricultural matrix.

The Blake’s Red Gum in the centre of this picture, if its diameter is 80cm or greater, is safe from the chainsaw, those nearby less so (Image via florabank.org.au)

So while the mature trees are safe from the chainsaw, anything immature could be cleared out with impunity.

If you kill of the young of any species, it is a recipe for extinction.

As the old trees die, and then come down in high winds or a severe storm, there would then be no young trees to take their place.

I also contacted noted botanist John Hunter about this, and put this to him:

'Wendy Hawes is afeared that the changes [to the Native Vegetation Regulations] will allow unhindered, unscientific clearing of land at the landholder's whim. Is that how you see it?'

His response:

'The short answer is I totally agree with Wendy and makes a farce if environmental legislation, we may as well not have any.'

Luke Foley’s final words are this:

As is always the case, the devil is in the detail of clearing regulations.

Engaging the public on the potential consequences of these small changes in technical prescriptions is difficult, but can lead to tens of thousands of hectares of additional clearing.

For instance paddock trees are essential habitat in large areas of land cleared for agriculture.

They allow birds, in particular to cross between remnant areas of intact bushland.

To reduce the standards around which paddock trees can be cleared is catastrophic for the fauna of the state’s west.

And just a word on labelling.

Stock shelter under a paddock tree. With a metre odd trunk diameter, this tree is safe, however it begs the question, why would anyone want to kill a magnificent tree like this in the first place? (Image via rgbstock.com)

Wendy Hawes told me over the phone that labelling woodland as 'scrub' is a massively powerful tool.

Given the environmental track record of the NSW Government so far, it is all too likely that minister Stokes will give the go-code for these changes, then the NSW countryside will echo to the sound of bulldozers and chainsaws starting up.

So, if you wish your children and grandchildren to have to soul-stretching joy of seeing a sugar glider gallumph up a tree trunk and dive into a hollow, or see a little bent-wing bat returning at dawn to its favourite hollow in a dead tree, then you better do it quick.

If these changes go through, the trees with their ecologically oh-so-valuable hollows will soon be gone and the animals that depend on them soon after.

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Independent Australia is a progressive journal focusing on politics, democracy, the environment, Australian history and Australian identity. It contains news and opinion from Australia and around the world. [ read more ]